If you've never had the opportunity to attend an Alabama football game because you couldn't afford to go, you may never get a better chance than this weekend's game against Louisiana Monroe. For cheaper than a matinee movie ticket or a combo at most fast food restaurants, you can sit in the upper deck at Bryant-Denny on Saturday night.
Ticket Master has seats available for this weekend's game for as little as $8.35. Alabama fans are no longer just voicing their displeasure with the direction of the football program under Kalen DeBoer; they're showing it, too.
Normally, this is where I would rant about fair-weather fans and the team deserving support no matter how bad things get. But you won't get that from me today. Because the effort the team displayed in last week's loss to Florida State doesn't deserve it.
Why would anyone, especially fans who are not local in Tuscaloosa, spend money and travel any distance to watch this team play if that's the effort level the team is going to give? It's not about being a fair-weather fan; it's about the rising costs of being a fan and not wasting your time, energy, and effort on a team that showed you, and the entire country, how little playing football at the University of Alabama meant to them.
Now that can easily change. If the team comes out and plays with energy and effort, then things will normalize next week against Wisconsin. At least in terms of attendance and ticket prices. A win over Louisiana Monroe certainly won't cool DeBoer's seat.
Lower ticket prices are just another sign of a downward trend for Alabama under DeBoer
It has not been a fun week in Tuscaloosa. Not for the players, the coaching staff, or Alabama fans. The reaction wouldn't have been good for Kalen DeBoer and the staff, no matter how the Crimson Tide lost to Florida State, but losing the way they did, with so many instances of minimal effort and looking completely outplayed and outschemed, made matters so much worse.
The net result of that is reports of booster unrest, and now likely a plethora of empty seats for the home opener. You can go ahead and bet that rival fans will screenshot photos from the stands throughout Saturday night's broadcast on the SEC Network. It will be another negative recruiting tool used against this staff as another sign of a program on a downward spiral.
No amount of words from DeBoer or the players will change that. Only results will. And the results have to start immediately.